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Item 1: Satellite image showing sea ice extent on 09/11/2006. The pink line shows the average ice extent for September; the average is calculated from Septembers 1979 to 2000. (+ Download Large Version of Image) Credit: NSIDC

Item 2: Current sea ice extent is shown in solid blue; it is well below the average for 1979-2000, which is shown in solid gray. However, slightly more sea ice is present now than was present during the record low in 2005, indicated by the dashed green line (+ Download Large Version of Image) Credit: NSIDC

Item 3: From January through July of 2006, Arctic air temperature anomalies were above average. The scale goes from red for temperatures strongly above average to blue/purple for temperatures strongly below average; the average is calculated from 1968 to 1996. (+ Download Large Version of Image) Credit: NSIDC

Item 4: August broke the pattern of unusually warm conditions that had characterized the Arctic from January through July 2006. Temperatures near the pole were slightly colder than average, inhibiting ice melt in this area. (+ Download Large Version of Image) Credit: NSIDC; from NOAA-CIRES/Climate Diagnostics Center

Item 5: Summer ice is not the only Arctic ice that has retreated in recent years. In 2005 and 2006, the winter ice maximum was about 6% smaller than the average amount over the past 26 years. This retreat is larger than the long-term 1.5 to 2% decrease in winter ice per decade. This visualization shows the winter sea ice cover during its annual maximum extent from 1979 to 2006, with the edge of the yellow area representing the farthest south reached by the winter ice cover since 1979. Click on image to view animation. (+ Download movie and Additional Imagery) Credit: NASA

Item 6a: Monthly anomaly maps of ice concentrations in (a) January 2005; (b) February 2005); (c) January 2006 and (d) February 2006. NCEP wind data are overlayed on the images. The big negative anomaly in the Eastern Arctic in January 2006 is shown to be in part caused by strong winds from the Atlantic Ocean. (+ Download larger version of this image) Credit: NASA

Item 6b: Monthly surface temperature anomaly maps using AVHRR thermal infrared data in (a) January 2005; (b) February 2005; (c) January 2006 and (d) February 2006. The images show abnormally warm winters in 2005 and 2006 especially in January 2006. (+ Download larger version of this image) Credit: NASA

Item 7: Five-year average of daily ice extent from January through December. The different lines represent those from 1980 to 1984 (purple), 1985 to 1989 (blue), 1990 to 1994 (green), 1995 to 1999 (gold), and 2000 to 2004 (red). Note the progression in the reduction of ice extent from the 1980s through the 1990s and to the 2000s. A shift in the occurrence of the end of the melt period (or beginning of freeze-up) towards the later part of autumn is also apparent. For comparison, the corresponding plots for individual years in 2002 (black dotted line) and 2005 (black dash line in bold) are also shown. The lowest minimum ice cover on record occurred this year (2005) while the second lowest occurred in 2002. (Note: You must have Macromedia Flash installed on your computer to view this animation.) + Quicktime movie version (does not require Flash reader)Credit: NASA

Item 8: NASA has teamed with the Canadian Wildlife Service to examine how changes in sea ice might be affecting polar bear populations in five regions: Baffin Bay, Davis Strait, Foxe Basin, Western and Eastern Hudson Bay. Sea ice data for the following map come from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSMI) for June 2000. (+ Download large version of image and Additional Imagery) Credit: NASA/Canadian Wildlife Service

Item 9: Polar bears depend on sea ice for survival. Climate warming in the Arctic has caused significant declines in overall Arctic sea ice cover and progressively earlier breakup in some areas, including western Hudson Bay. This visualization shows, twice, the August 5, 2005 - August 5, 2006 annual cycle of sea ice coverage as determined from data from the Aqua satellite's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E). Click on image to view animation. (+ Download movie and Additional Imagery) Credit: NASA/JAXA

Item 10: Plot of the day of the year when the Western Hudson Bay ice coverage decreased to 50% or less during the annual ice retreat period, using data from 1979 through 2004. The data indicate considerable variability from year to year but also an overall trend toward earlier ice breakup. The trend line suggests that, on average, the ice breakup is occurring about 7-8 days earlier per decade. The data are from the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer on NASA's Nimbus 7 satellite and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager on satellites of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program. (+ Download larger version of image.) Credit: NASA